1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrically powered foldable rearview mirror for automobiles and, more particularly, to a mirror for automobiles in which a shaft is fixed to a mirror base portion, a frame is rotatably mounted on said shaft to support a mirror body, and a driving control unit comprises a motor for folding the mirror, a gear train for reduction of a rotation speed generated by the motor and positioning means, thereby the mirror body is rotated to an erected position or a folded position, further relates to the electrically powered foldable rearview mirror for automobiles including a sealing structure for an actuating unit, in which a sealing cap is fitted on the frame to seal the driving unit so that the unit is prevented from flooding through the clearance between the sealing cap and the frame.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
In these years some of automobiles having various types of functions are proposed so as to progress an added value. For example there are electrically powered foldable rearview mirrors in which a mirror body can be folded and contained therein when the automobile is to be parked, a heating device or a ultrasonic oscillating device is provided therewith for removing water drops sticking on a mirror surface or an actuator for adjusting a reflection angle of the mirror surface or an automatic anti-glare device or the like for decreasing a glare light from a head lamp of the following vehicle.
In the conventional electrically powered foldable rearview mirror, as shown in FIG. 4, a sealing cap 50 is attached to fit on a frame 51 so that an inside electrically powered foldable device (so called hereinbelow including an electronic device) is protected from flooding of water or the like thus protecting from a mechanical shock.
That is a driving unit comprises an electric drive motor for folding a mirror which is covered an upper surface thereof with the sealing cap 50 and reduction gear train which are connected to an output axis of the motor. The driving unit is attached to a root portion of the frame 51 so that a mirror body is fixed to a bracket 52 of the frame 51 and rotates around a cylindrical shaft which is erected on a mirror base. A driving current and a controlling signal for the motor or the like are supplied via the harness cord 53. The harness cord 53 extends from the automobile body side through the shaft inside diameter via a small access 54 provided between the sealing cap 50 and the frame 51 toward an outside of the sealing cap 50. Thereafter harness cord is connected to said motor and the heater device, to the ultrasonic oscillator, to the mirror reflection angle adjusting actuator or to the automatic anti-glare device (not shown) via a various kinds of connector.
In view of a necessity for the replacement of the harness cord 53 at the time of wiring for the mirror assembly or at the time of the repair of the assembly, or for facility of the wiring works, the access 54 size is set to be larger than a bundle of a plurality of harness cords 53. As shown in FIG. 5 is a partially cross-sectional view taken alone line A--A of FIG. 4, the access 54 which is provided between the sealing cap 50 and the frame 51 is covered by attaching a rubber or elastomer made resilient projection 56 or a packing material such as a grommet which are attached to the sealing cap 50 inside to be water proof or to be protected from the dust.
Conventionally, however, there has been a problem that water floods into the sealing cap 50 inside due to the capillarity phenomenon through a slight small space formed between said sealing cap 50 and the frame 51, and especially for automobiles being washed by a high pressure washing, it has caused disadvantages that the washing water can flood thereinto.
Furthermore there is a fear that harness cords are led to the wrong access other than the determined access at the time of wiring of assemblies or of the repair. The synthetic resin made sealing cap 50 is easily deformed and there has been a problem of causing water flood through said deformed parts so that an even sealing can not be achieved due to harness cords biting or due to a recoverying force of packing materials 58 which are packed therein. While there has been a problem that the complete water proof effect could not be achieved by conventional mirrors so that water flood has been more easily caused if the cap could not be filled with such resilient projection or packing materials.